Our mission is to build pathways to employment, good health, and a revitalized community.

Impact

Accomplishments:

Pathways' free, volunteer-run specialty clinic, with a current caseload of over 7100 patients, provided more $900,000 in free medical services last year to our patients in the areas of cardiology, breast health, disability, rheumatology, and other specialties.

We serve over 30 students, including at-risk youth and dislocated adult workers. Our job training courses now include instruction in construction, environmental remediation, healthcare, and logistics with certifications available in all fields.

Pathways recently began a financial opportunity center, which has provided economic stability services to more than 100 people.

Goals:

To prepare our participants for sustainable living wage employment through skills training, career preparation, and placement assistance

To develop a community model for health and wellness in Petersburg, which has one of the lowest average life expectancy rates in the U.S. Through programs, education, and awareness, we hope to improve quality of life, promote longevity, and combat obesity in the City of Petersburg.

To
build partnerships with residents and stakeholders of the Battersea community
as part of a neighborhood revitalization plan. Together, we can bring to
life their vision for their neighborhood.

To
revitalize neighborhoods with a high concentration of foreclosed homes and
increase the quality and quantity of affordable housing in our area.

A group of representatives from diverse traditions sat around a table in this community in the mid-nineties to discuss ways to put faith into action through partnerships that are seldom forged. From this and similar gatherings, the decision was made to "just do it," and pathways to healthy development have continued to be forged through lasting partnerships with congregations, finance and business entities, public agencies, other community-based organizations, and local residents. As an organization, we continue to celebrate and embrace the gift and richness of diversity, and we are committed to recognizing and responding to the value of the human spirit in every person as we are about the work of Building Lives and Awakening Hope. Pathways, formerly Petersburg Urban Ministries, was begun in 1995 as an inter-faith community development corporation. It was incorporated in 1997 and received its 501(c)3 status in 1998.

Pathways is a YouthBuild affiliate and partners with Crater Youth Services to provide uniquely comprehensive, full-time, non-residential, community-based programs that offer at-risk youth an immediately productive role rebuilding their communities. Students spend half their time attending basic education classes and half their time receiving job skills training in high-demand fields while building affordable housing. YouthBuild is also on the cutting edge of education reform for drop-outs and effective re-entry for offenders. Pathways' youth development programs work because they put equal emphasis on education, employment skills, and community service in a supportive setting.

Budget$500,000.00

Short Term Success

By the end of a 12 month program, from completing students: 100% will be drug free, 90% will be employed or in secondary education, 75% will have earned a credential, 50% will have earned their GED

Long Term Success

The long-term goals of this program are young people who are educated, trained, and have employment which enables them to support their families. As a long-term result, unemployment in the area will drop from 43% to below the national average.

Pathways Technical School provides free job training in construction, HAZWOPER, healthcare, and logistics for unemployed youth and adults. As an official testing site, our students may earn the following certifications:

National Center for Construction Education Research - Construction, Your Role in the Green Environment

In addition, training is offered in basic computer literacy and job-readiness.

Budget$400,000.00

Short Term Success

By the end of a three month program: 100% of students will earn one or more workforce credentials, 75% of students will find placement.

Long Term Success

The long term goals of this program include an educated, trained, and employed workforce that meets the needs of our area’s dynamic community and employers, thereby reducing the 43% unemployment rate to below the national average. Also, for the homes that are weatherized through this program, we desire a 20% reduction in energy usage costs for the lifetime of the home.

Pathways rehabilitates older homes and builds new single family homes primarily in the North Battersea neighborhood in Petersburg, Virginia. Each of these homes is developed for sale to low-to-moderate income first-time homebuyers.

Pathways also rehabilitates affordable living spaces.

Other housing activities include cleaning and renovating public housing, weatherization services, and lead hazard screenings.

Budget$779,000.00

Short Term Success

We will rehabilitate 38 affordable living spaces in the next year. Eight foreclosed homes will be renovated, made energy efficient, and made available for resale. Forty homes will receive weatherization services.

Long Term Success

The long term goals of this program include a neighborhood vacancy rate reduced from 47% to below the area average, and an owner occupancy rate increased from 30% to above the area average.

Pathways pools the time and skills of over 1,000 volunteers annually. Individuals, groups, and AmeriCorps members work together with our staff and neighbors to bring our vision for Petersburg to life.

Our community revitalization project relies heavily on community engagement and quality of life planning to improve the health and sustainability of Petersburg. This comprehensive, neighborhood-driven approach brings together strategies for the development of both places and people. Resident leaders and community stakeholders create and implement a quality of life plan that will, over time, help transform Petersburg into a community of choice and opportunity where families can happily live, work and raise their children.

Pathways’ Specialty Clinic provides free services to uninsured patients in the areas of cardiology, disability,mental health, and breast health. Pathways is a member of the Virginia Association of Free Clinics. Other health services include substance abuse counseling, nutrition classes, health seminars, vaccinations, and health challenge programs.

Budget$65,000.00

Short Term Success

Pathways will:

Serve over 400 patients through its free clinics

Provide over 100 nutrition classes

Assist 30 people in maintaining or becoming drug free

Long Term Success

The long term goal of this program is patients who have received care for their health problems, learned how to mange their chronic disease, and gotten instruction on healthy changes. We want to reduce the area’s rates of diabetes, obesity, and heart attack, all of which are among the highest in the state.